Jane's Walk - James Bay 2026

Great reads about Jane Jacobs, urban planning, and community connection to add to your experience at the2026 Jane's Walk events in James Bay.

Updated March 13, 2026
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The abundant community : awakening the power of families and neighborhoods
McKnight, John
Paper Book
This book is about a new possibility for us together to discover the real basis for a satisfying life. It is a life that becomes possible when we join our neighbors in creating a community that nurtures our family and makes us useful citizens. We are besieged by messages from consumer...
The architecture of urbanity designing for nature, culture, and joy
Chakrabarti, Vishaan
Paper Book
"Vishaan Chakrabarti is a brilliant architect."--Fareed Zakaria From one of today's most inspired architects and urban advocates, a manifesto for architecture as a force for addressing our biggest social challenges The world is facing unprecedented...
Becoming Jane Jacobs
Laurence, Peter L.
Paper Book
Jane Jacobs is universally recognized as one of the key figures in American urbanism. The author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she uncovered the complex and intertwined physical and social fabric of the city and excoriated the urban renewal policies of the 1950s. As the...
Bowling alone : the collapse and revival of American community
Putnam, Robert D.
Paper Book
*The basis for the documentary Join or Die--now streaming on Netflix!* Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet--the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its...
Building and dwelling : ethics for the city
Sennett, Richard
Paper Book
A preeminent thinker redefines the meaning of city life and charts a way forward Building and Dwelling is the definitive statement on cities by the renowned public intellectual Richard Sennett. In this sweeping work, he traces the anguished relation between how cities...
Building for hope : towards an architecture of belonging
Al-Sabouni, Marwa
Paper Book
When Marwa al-Sabouni published Battle for Home in 2016, she was a little-known architect, living in battle-ravaged Homs, Syria, unable to practice her profession. She turned her fierce intelligence to chronicling how her city and country were undone through decades of architectural mismanagement...
Cities matter a Montrealer's ode to Jane Jacobs
Ramsay, Charles Albert
Paper Book
Unlock the economic power of cities and understand their crucial role in shaping our world. Jane Jacobs, though known as an urbanist, was a pivotal economist. Cities Matter reveals her insights on the economic relationship between cities, nations, and international trade. Charles...
Citizen Jane [DVD video] battle for the city
Tyrnauer, Matt, film director.
The city of our dreaming
Khalili, Laleh
Paper Book
The third annual Alchemy Lecture took place in the fall of 2024 at York University, to a sold-out in-person audience and hundreds of online viewers tuning in from multiple continents. Gathered by Dr. Christina Sharpe, these Alchemists - four thinkers and practitioners who work across a range of...
Dark age ahead
Jacobs, Jane
Paper Book
Visionary thinker Jane Jacobs uses her authoritative work on urban life and economies to show us how we can protect and strengthen our culture and communities. In Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs identifies five pillars of our culture that we depend on but which are in serious decline: community and...
The death and life of great American cities
Jacobs, Jane
Paper Book
Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and keenly detailed, a monumental work that provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities. "The most refreshing, provacative, stimulating and exciting study of this [great problem] which I have seen. It fairly...
Dream states : smart cities, technology, and the pursuit of urban utopias
Lorinc, John
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2022 WRITERS' TRUST BALSILLIE PRIZE FOR PUBLIC POLICY SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 DONNER BOOK PRIZE WINNER OF THE PATTIS FAMILY FOUNDATION GLOBAL CITIES BOOK AWARD Is the 'smart city' the utopia we've been waiting for? The promise of the so-called...
Eyes on the street : the life of Jane Jacobs
Kanigel, Robert
Paper Book
Eyes on the Street is a revelation of the phenomenal woman who raised three children, wrote seven groundbreaking books, saved neighborhoods, stopped expressways, was arrested twice, and engaged at home and on the streets in thousands of debates--all of which she won. Here is the child who...
Humanize a maker's guide to designing our cities
Heatherwick, Thomas
Paper Book
From one of the world's most innovative designers comes a fiercely passionate manifesto on why so many places have become miserable and boring and how we can make them better for everyone--featuring hundreds of photographs and illustrations that will change how you see the world around you....
Ideas that matter : the worlds of Jane Jacobs
Allen, Max.
Paper Book
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) is history's most celebrated urban critic. In addition to her classic, Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs authored another half dozen influential books on urban planning, economics, and design. She was also a tireless advocate of vibrant city neighborhoods...
Jane Jacobs : champion of cities, champion of people
Pitts, Rebecca
Paper Book
Jane Jacobs was born more than a hundred years ago, yet the ideas she popularized - about cities, about people, about making a better world - remain hugely relevant today. Now, in Jane Jacobs: Champion of Cities, Champion of People, we have the first biography for young people of the visionary...
Jane Jacobs : urban visionary
Alexiou, Alice Sparberg
Paper Book
Today, we take for granted the wisdom of renovating old factory buildings into malls or condos, of making once decaying waterfronts into vibrant public spaces, of protecting historic buildings under landmark laws, and of building public housing on a human scale rather than as high...
Jane Jacobs's first city : learning from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Lang, Glenna
Paper Book
A thorough investigation of how Jane Jacobs's ideas about the life and economy of great cities grew from her home city, Scranton Jane Jacobs's First City vividly reveals how this influential thinker and writer's classic works germinated in the once vibrant, mid-size...
The joy experiments reimagining mid-sized cities to heal our divided society
Higgins, Scott (President of HIP Developments, Inc.)
Paper Book
A new perspective on developing shared joy in urban spaces. Our divided society is quickly reaching crisis level. We are no longer able to sustain social and economic prosperity nor ensure democracy. Fuelling this crisis is a growing sense of social isolation caused...
Key to the city how zoning shapes our world
Bronin, Sara C.
Paper Book
Zoning codes dictate how and where we can build housing, factories, restaurants, and parks. They limit how tall buildings can be and where trees can be planted. They have become the most significant regulatory power of local government, ultimately determining how we experience our cities. Yet...
Living disability building accessible futures for everybody
Macrae, Emily, editor.
Paper Book
How can we build more accessible cities? Living Disability brings together vibrant perspectives on disability justice and urban systems.  From sidewalks to the climate crisis, Living Disability brings together the vibrant perspectives of thirty...
The lost Massey lectures : recovered classics from five great thinkers
Galbraith, John Kenneth
Paper Book
The CBC Massey Lectures, Canada's preeminent public lecture series, are for many of us a highly anticipated annual feast of ideas. However, some of the finest lectures, by some of the greatest minds of modern times, have been lost for many years -- unavailable to the public in any form.Important...
Messy cities why we can't plan everything
Reid, Dylan, editor.
Paper Book
Can messiness make our cities more liveable, lively, and inclusive? Crowded streets, sidewalk vendors, jumbled architecture, constant clamour, graffitied walls, parks gone wild: are these signs of a poorly managed city or indicators of urban vitality? Messy Cities: Why We Can't Plan...
Nature-first cities : restoring relationships with ecosystems and with each other
Brewer, Cam
Paper Book
Nature belongs in cities, but how do we put nature first without pushing people aside? Nature-First Cities reveals the false dichotomy of that question by recognizing that people and nature are indivisible. Western urbanization has meant the ongoing expulsion of nature, which is engendering...
Neighbourhood : Designing a Livable Community
Friedman, Avi
Paper Book
In Neighbourhood: Designing a Liveable Community renowned architect, professor and urban planner Avi Friedman describes the planning of a neighborhood in Middlesex Centre, a rural municipality in southern Ontario. Friedman explores the points where design--both good and bad--effects...
Palaces for the people : how social infrastructure can help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life
Klinenberg, Eric
Paper Book
"A comprehensive, entertaining, and compelling argument for how rebuilding social infrastructure can help heal divisions in our society and move us forward."--Jon Stewart NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR * "Engaging."--Mayor Pete Buttigieg, The New York...
Restorative cities : urban design for mental health and wellbeing
Roe, Jenny (Landscape architect)
Paper Book
Overcrowding, noise and air pollution, long commutes and lack of daylight can take a huge toll on the mental well-being of city-dwellers. With mental healthcare services under increasing pressure, could a better approach to urban design and planning provide a solution? The restrictions faced by...
This must be the place how music can make your city better
Shapiro, Shain
Paper Book
This Must Be the Place explores how music can make cities better. This Must Be the Place introduces and examines music's relationship to cities. Not the influence cities have on music, but the powerful impact music can have on how cities are developed, built,...
Urbanism without effort : reconnecting with first principles of the city
Wolfe, Charles R.
Paper Book
How do you create inviting and authentic urban environments where people feel at home? Countless community engagement workshops, studies by consulting firms, and downtown revitalization campaigns have attempted to answer this age-old question. In Urbanism Without Effort, Chuck Wolfe...
Vital little plans : the short works of Jane Jacobs
Jacobs, Jane
Paper Book
A new book by influential urbanist Jane Jacobs, released in Jacobs' centenary, and showing her evolution as a writer and thinker. Vital Little Plans will bring together for the first time a selection of essays, articles, speeches and interviews by the late Jane Jacobs....
Walking in the city with Jane a story of Jane Jacobs
Hughes, Susan, 1960- author.
Paper Book
From the time she was a young girl, Jane Jacobs' curious mind made her a keen observer of everything around her. When she grew up, she moved to New York City, a place full of new wonders for her to explore. It was there she realised that, just like in nature, a city is an ecosystem. It is made of...
Wild cities discovering new ways of living in the modern urban jungle
Fitch, Chris, 1988- author.
Paper Book
'Mind-shifting, heart-lifting' ISABELLA TREE 'Inspiring and essential' ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS 'As entertaining as it is enlightening' INDEPENDENT, ★★★★★ Nature isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. But today the majority of the world's...
Wrestling with Moses : how Jane Jacobs took on New York's master builder and transformed the American city
Flint, Anthony
Paper Book
The David-and-Goliath story of legendary activist Jane Jacobs' clash with "power broker" Robert Moses, an urban planning battle that forever changed the way we look at cities. In 1968, journalist, activist, and writer Jane Jacobs ripped up a stenographer's notes during a public hearing and was...

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